Ockham's calculus of strict implication (Q2354874)

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Ockham's calculus of strict implication
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    Ockham's calculus of strict implication (English)
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    27 July 2015
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    This is an interesting look at Ockham's \textit{Summa logicae} and at the smaller writings \textit{Elementarium logicae} and \textit{Tractatus minor}, in which the author finds, resuming research going back to his work [``Ockhams modale Aussagenlogik'', Arch. Gesch. Philos. 75, No. 2, 125--159 (1993)], that Ockham ``developed a system of propositional modal logic which contains almost all theorems of a modern calculus of strict implication'' (p.\ 181). The paper consists of Latin quotations from Ockham's works and their interpretation in the modern language of propositional modal logic, together with a justification of that interpretation. The author is aware that his reading of Ockham is ``at odds with the traditional view put forward, in particular, by \textit{J. Salamucha} [``Die Aussagenlogik bei Wilhelm Ockham'', Franziskanische Studien 32, 97--134 (1950)] and by \textit{E. A. Moody} [Truth and consequence in mediaeval logic. Amsterdam: North-Holland (1953; Zbl 0050.24404)]'' (p.\ 181). He finds those interpretations ``untenable'' on several grounds, but leaves the discussion with these other points out of this paper. ``The set of Ockham's logical principles as reconstructed in this paper may perhaps fail to come up to the standards of a contemporary calculus of strict implication. Nevertheless, it represents a surprisingly detailed system of the basic laws for the operators of conjunction, disjunction, (strict) implication, negation, possibility, and necessity, and thus it certainly deserves to be referred to as `Ockham's calculus of strict implication'.'' (p.\ 190)
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    William Ockham
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    propositional modal logic
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    strict implication
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